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Susan Brenna

Too old for the pediatrician and too young for the OB-GYN, teenage girls -- none too communicative to begin with -- are often shut off from smart medical care just when they're confronting major issues like sex, smoking, and diet that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Research shows that men and women respond differently to everything from pain medication to heart attacks. Yet gender-based medicine struggles for respect -- and funding for research that could be critical to your future health.

One spring evening, 7-year-old Kara Ramos ate a rare hamburger at a family party. Days later she was lying in the hospital, trembling with pain as E. coli toxins coursed through her body. She screamed at her mother's touch. That's when Kara's doctor gave her parents a choice: Would they allow her to become the 28th child in America to take an experimental drug? It was the toughest decision they'd ever had to make. And they had to make it right away.